In Chapter Five of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has Nick invite Daisy to tea at his house. When Gatsby arrives, he is nervous, and he appears pale in his "white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-colored tie" that he wears to display his wealth. After Daisy arrives, Nick takes her into the living room where he hopes to reintroduce her to Gatsby, but he has gone. Then, Nick hears a knock on the door, and there stands Gatsby "glaring tragically into my eyes," Nick narrates. Awkward as a schoolboy, Gatsby utters "a chocking murmur" when he meets Daisy in the living room. As Nick enters, he observes that Gatsby nearly upsets the clock as he reclines against the mantlepiece in a strained "counterfeit of perfect ease." But, when Daisy tells Nick that she and Gatsby have not met for many years, Gatsby automatically adds, "Five years next November," indicating the importance of this moment and his having been with Daisy years ago.

Finding this behavior rather ridiculous, Nick goes outside, leaving the couple together. When he returns, Daisy has tears, but Gatsby possesses "a new well-being." It is then that Gatsby invites them to his house. Daisy is impressed by its size as they walk towards it. "With enchanting murmurs," Daisy admires the gardens and the feudal style. They traverse the Marie Antoinette music rooms and the Restoration salons. Nick imagines that he hears a ghostly laughter of Owl Eyes as they close the door to "the Merton College Library." Upstairs they pass through period rooms; a guest, Mr. Klipspringer who is known as "the boarder" exercises. All the time that Daisy and the men stroll through the rooms, Gatsby stares at his possessions in "a dazed way" as though none of it are real anymore. When Daisy brushes her hair with his brush, Gatsby laughs.

Nick narrates,

He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy, he was consumed with wonder at her presence.

After all, Gatsby has dreamt of her coming for so long that he has been in a "pitch of intensity." Now, he is coming down from it. When Gatsby takes out a pile of shirts and tosses them at Nick and Daisy, she buries her face in them and cries. Impressed with wealth, learning that Gatsby is wealthy delights her. As Gatsby remarks that if it were not for the mist, they all could see Daisy's house and the green light that burns nightly at the end of the pier, Nick notes that with Daisy near,

...it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.

But, Daisy seeks illusions. She tells Gatsby that she would like to capture one of the pink clouds outside and enclose Gatsby in order to push him around. In order to impress Daisy, Gatsby makes Klipspringer play the piano. Yet, when Nick leaves, he notices that Gatsby's face has regained its bewilderment;

There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion.

But, Gatsby recovers from his bewilderment as Nick looks at him as he is again enchanted by Daisy's voice, a voice that "was a deathless song" as Gatsby remains tragically loyal to his dream.